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Lackluster Diaz?
Re “Brahms ’til you drop,” by Tom Purdom—
I’m a big fan of Astral Artists, and the Brahms Festival was certainly memorable. Several of us who attended the final concert felt that Roberto Diaz was the only disappointment in an otherwise marvelous program.
He gave a remarkably lackluster and perfunctory performance of the Second Viola Sonata. Where was the passion? It was in the brilliant piano playing of the gifted Alexandre Moutouzkine.
Jane Biberman
Doylestown, Pa.
November 23, 2010
Old Orchestra vs. new
Re “The ‘old’ Philadelphia Orchestra and the new,” by Dan Rottenberg (January 2009)—
Yumi Kendall is amazing. I’ve never seen an artist draw you in the way she does. You literally feel every note she plays...all from the heart!
Betty Sakuma
Washington Crossing, Pa.
November 25, 2010 Outsider heroes
Re “The girl who kicked her computer,” by Bob Ingram—
I saw the two Lisbeth Salander films and enjoyed them both, especially the first. My wife read all three books as soon as they were published here and was thrilled by the writing and stories. I think Bob Ingram captures their essence quite well, and I agree that Lisbeth is a great character, and certainly a hero.
Dinny Zimmerman
Peterborough, N.H.
November 17, 2010 Well, you’ve inspired me to read Jack Reacher. Is he a macho man, or does he have feminine characteristics too?
My main interest in Salander now is: What kind of “real life” effects has
Salander had? In New York, we have just seen a petite young woman who stood up to and “exposed” a subway flasher. Was she influenced by Salander? Are there other stories in the news from other parts of the globe that depict assertive women who seem to have been “inspired” by Salander to confront injustice?
Linda Stein
New York City
November 26, 2010
Critics and criticism
Re “When critics can’t take criticism,” by Dan Rottenberg (Editor’s Notebook)—
I think you’ve missed the point of my blog post. Criticism from readers and theatergoers is one thing; public criticism from one’s own editor is quite another.
I think my track record shows that when it comes to disagreements over my reviews, I prefer to engage my readership in just the sort of open dialogue you hope to foster here at BSR. To me, there’s nothing worse than a critic who can’t take criticism.
That said, when the critic’s seat gets hot, as it often does, an editor--who is equally responsible for what shows up in his or her publication bearing that writer’s name— needs to stay cool, not shovel on more coal.
Wendy Rosenfield
Meadowbrook, Pa.
November 17, 2010 Editor’s comment: Agreed. But my question remains: How has my criticism of one of my writers caused him harm? Macbeth at the Wilma Re Steve Cohen’s review of Macbeth at the Wilma Theater—
Actually, James was a direct descendant not of Malcolm, but of Banquo, through his son Fleance. Hence the witch’s prophecy of "Thou shalt get Kings, though thou be none." The apparitions in Act IV represented King James’s line of ancestry, and there is speculation that at the first performance, the apparition holding the glass turned it to reflect the seated king in the audience.
Patrick Goss
Astoria, Queens, N.Y.
November 18, 2010 Steve Cohen replies: I thank Mr. Goss for his correction of that detail, and for his great story about the light being reflected on King James. These anecdotes reinforce the fact that Shakespeare in this play wrote about much more than Macbeth and his Lady, all of which adds credibility to the approach used in the Wilma production.
InterAct Theatre’s Silverhill Robert Zaller’s review of Silverhill by InterAct Theatre makes me wish I were a Gekko enough to call Lufthansa for a fast trip to Philly. Never even heard of the playwright (Thomas Gibbons) nor his plays. The high aesthetic price of a comfortable retirement in Weimar!
Patrick D. Hazard
Weimar, Germany
November 19, 2010 Today’s composers Robert Zaller, in his review of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s "Yannick" concert, bemoans "the absence of major new compositional talent." I have a different impression.
At Keneseth Israel on Saturday evening, I heard two works by Aaron Jay Kernis: Trio in Red and Still Movement with Hymn. Both works are masterpieces that left the audience stunned in silence before erupting in a standing ovation.
Mr. Kernis, who this year is in residence with Astral Artists, is only one of several composers who are vigorously keeping our art form vital. His Second Quartet was performed by Astral’s Jasper Quartet to great effect two weeks ago, and a World Premiere will be featured on Astral’s March 20 concert.
Dolce Suono recently performed the premiere of a wonderful work by Richard Danielpour. Jennifer Higdon (fresh from winning the Pulitzer Prize) and David Ludwig (at Curtis) are producing masterpieces on a regular basis.
In New York, Magnus Lindbergh’s beautiful music has been highlighted by the Philharmonic, and a new piece by George Tsontakis was enthusiastically reviewed in today’s New York Times. Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar was the hit of the Opera Company of Philadelphia season in 2008.
A Kernis master class at Curtis last year revealed some major compositional talents-in-the-making. I’m sure there are many whom I have left out, but those composers cited above give me good reason to be optimistic about the current and future state of musical composition.
Julian Rodescu
Artistic director
Astral Artists
Center City/Philadelphia
November 8, 2010 Robert Zaller replies: I salute Astral Artists’ advocacy of contemporary music, and I have enjoyed the work of most of the composers Mr. Rodescu cites. The question is whether any of these composers advances the standard of the classical repertory.
I do not mean simply in terms of style and technique (for great composers have written in established idioms— think of Bach, Brahms or, closer to our own time, Shostakovich and Britten), but of actual musical expression. Great composers force themselves into the repertory and demand to be heard. Composers in residence who depend on such patronage for their audience don’t make this cut, not at least until they can stand on their own.
I do not prejudge history’s valuation of Kernis and Lindberg, any more than that of Stockhausen and Boulez. But that they still lean on the crutch of residencies does suggest that they have not, to this point, won an independent place.
Please do not misunderstand this as a criticism of residencies, which play a useful role in musical life and which I certainly encourage. But perhaps we wouldn’t be hearing so much of Mahler, whose sesquicentennial birth celebration falls this year and whose centennial death observance comes in 2011, if there were contemporary composers whom audiences valued as much or more.
True, the great Mahler revival didn’t begin until about 1960 (although the idea that he was ignored or uninfluential before then is absurd), and it may be that some laborer in the vineyards today may have to wait until 2060 for his or her true vindication. But Mahler was surrounded by contemporaries, Strauss and Sibelius among them, whose value was certainly perceived and whose work was performed by major orchestras. Who occupies such a place today?
Editor’s comment: Didn’t Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Wagner, Tchaikovsky et al also rely to a large degree on wealthy patrons (royal or otherwise) to put bread on their tables? Far East economics Re “I have seen the future, and it’s in the Far East,” by Benjamin B. Olshin—
I’ve never been to Taiwan, but Benjamin Olshin makes it sound close to Paradise-- no street crime, no begging, and an unemployment rate half of ours despite a worldwide recession. The reason why Taiwanese are bearing up better isn’t a mystery. Like most other developed countries, they have socialized basic services, including education and medicine, and provide a reasonable safety net.
The Taiwanese enjoy another major advantage over us. They don’t have a military-industrial-security complex that, with two declared and several undeclared wars superadded, cost in excess of $1 trillion a year. (A part of this is providing military cover for Taiwan itself.)
As for Japan, the picture may be less rosy than Mr. Olshin suggests. I haven’t been there in a while, but a friend with high-level economic contacts just back from a visit reports the mood as deeply pessimistic, except among the financial elites.
Robert Zaller
Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
November 6, 2010
Economic news from Germany: The big difference here is the respect for unions, as opposed to Reagan’s mantra, "Americans are free again to become billionaires," the idiotic ideology that replaced "Any boy can grow up to be president." Reagan began his imperium by destroying the air controllers union and advising executives to break the auto unions by outsourcing. German brass support union participation on boards of directors and don’t whine about unemployment insurance.
Patrick D. Hazard
Weimar, Germany
November 6, 2010 Pennsylvania Ballet’s Carmen Re Jim Rutter’s review of the Pennsylvania Ballet’s Carmen—
Ballet review aside, I take issue with this: "When José kills Carmen at the end of Bizet’s opera, you might well think the bitch deserved it."
Mr. Rutter, after giving a laundry list of Don José’s despicable behavior, comes to the simple, infantile and misogynistic conclusion that of course it’s the woman’s fault, and she’s a "bitch" at that. Well, if indeed she is "a bitch," then she does the proper thing to perpetuate the species: She picks the alpha male.
Check your own misogyny Mr. Rutter. It’s views like that that condone violence against women.
R. Mandelblatt
Fox Chase/ Philadelphia
November 3, 2010 In defense of Chekhov Re “Should actors address the audience?”, by Chris Braak—
I agree that Charles Isherwood’s real beef with “direct address” of audiences is with sloppy playwriting— direct address as deus ex machina. (Ha! An indication that sloppiness is an ancient problem, too!) I’m surprised that Isherwood himself doesn’t recognize that, actually.
But having just had the full-immersion in Chekhov (I just opened Uncle Vanya at the Lantern), I disagree that his work is either filled with unnecessary exposition or that nothing happens. If Masha is talking about her marriage, or Irina about going to Moscow or losing their father, they do so because they are in an emotional pressure-cooker where the exposition is hissing out of them— revealing so much more about their present state than about any one thing that has happened. They aren’t rehashing events for the audience; they’re trying to claw their way out of the past.
For me, that’s the action of the play, too. The action isn’t sitting and drinking tea; it’s trying to drink tea while your whole life falls apart.
Nikos Psacharopoulos, the great Chekhov interpreter at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, said that Chekhov’s characters"are fighting for a better life." That’s a pretty compelling action, wouldn’t you say?
Come see Uncle Vanya and let me know what you think.
Kathryn MacMillan
Associate Artistic Director
Lantern Theater
Center City/Philadelphia
October 30, 2010 There are plenty of reasons to condemn the obvious insertion of exposition, and playwrights like Albee have rightfully condemned it. But Chris Braak could find better examples than Chekhov’s Three Sisters to illustrate his point.
Three Sisters opens on the one-year anniversary of a father’s death. Braak laments that the sisters hound us— and each other— with information that the characters in the play already know. But their dialogue, for me at least, enshrines realism.
My father died in 2000; on the one-year anniversary of his death, my sister, mother and I did nothing but rehash the previous year we had spent without his presence. What family wouldn’t?
I have met Braak’s father, who is still alive, so perhaps this is a beneficent failure of experience for him.
Jim Rutter
South Philadelphia
November 6, 2010 Robert Zaller’s review of the Lantern Theater’s Uncle Vanya was too much academic gobbledygook and not enough review of the production and performances.
Leslie Edwards
New York City
November 10, 2010 Death and the boxer Re “Why boxers risk death,” by Bob Ingram (August 2009) and my subsequent response in January 2010—
I, too, must stand corrected. In February of this year I noted the death of champion Benny Paret in a fight with Emile Griffith and stated that I thought that to be the only case of a champion being killed. I correct myself: only 14 months later champion Davey Moore died after fighting Sugar Ramos. Moore’s manager stopped the fight after the 11th round, I believe. Moore was alive and feeling well in his dressing room when he collapsed; he died three days later. He sustained a brain stem injury when his neck hit the bottom rope when he was knocked down.
Myron Finsterling
Mount Pleasant, S.C.
November 12, 2010 The Met’s Boris Godunov
Re “The Met’s Boris Godunov and its critics,” by Steve Cohen—
I’m sorry Steve Cohen knows so little about this opera.
First of all, the Met version contained pieces from the 1869 original and pieces from the 1874 version, but nothing from 1872. That means no clock scene! One of the most famous scenes of the whole opera— the scene that establishes Boris’s madness—is entirely left out, and so our vision and understanding of Boris is absolutely shriveled. The Met also left out the Kromi Forest scene, which is extremely atmospheric (and has some of the best orchestral parts).
The sets were terrible. This is a Russian opera, with forests, and cathedrals, and Kremlins, against which the chorus (one of the main characters) supposedly shrinks. Instead, it was all lighting, with a half-size throne.
René Pape in the title role was fine. But when Pimen’s dream is more memorable than Boris’s death scene, and the voice of Pimen is deeper and richer, you know there is a casting problem, and there was.
Godunov is one of my favorite operas. This performance was entirely unremarkable, and not one I am likely to remember much.
David Albert
Olympia, Wash.
October 27, 2010 Steve Cohen replies: The letter-writer and I have a basic and normal disagreement over the relative merits of certain singers, and over the importance of scenery. A more serious problem is Mr. Albert’s complaint that the Kromi Forest scene was missing. I saw and heard it at the Met, immediately after the death of Boris, and I described it in detail in my review. Boris’s clock monologue also existed, uncut, as part of the scene in the Terem Palace of the Kremlin. What was missing was a large, prominently-placed clock on the stage, and the pronounced ticking sounds in Rimsky-Korsakov’s orchestration. Mussorgsky did change some of Boris’s notes when he revised his score, and his orchestral writing is more subtle than Rimsky’s. These differences apparently fooled at least one viewer into thinking that the scene didn’t exist. But most of us saw and heard Boris hallucinate and choke and collapse impressively. Yannick’s debut Re “Yannick and the Orchestra: So far so good,” by Peter Burwasser—
Good analysis of the performance! I was more impressed by the Haydn than the Mahler. It was pristine and energetic and I was riveted for the duration. I don’t know that I have ever heard this orchestra play that well.
In the Mahler, I felt that many of the work’s more dramatic moments lacked the musical direction and drive it takes to pull them off. Moreover, it might have been where I was sitting, but I felt that the performance was plagued with balance problems. The loud sections sometimes sounded like a muddy mess of incoherent noise, and in the very loudest sections, the strings were completely drowned out by the brass and percussion.
Even within the brass section there were balance issues. The trombones rocked the house but need to learn to pull it down a notch when the trumpets can’t produce the power to match.
Interestingly, I heard similar balance issues in the Orchestra’s performance of Mahler’s First Symphony last month. It’s unfortunate that something like balance should sully an otherwise outstanding performance.
Elizabeth Scott
Norristown, Pa.
October 31, 2010 Haven’t had so much enjoyment from a Philadelphia Orchestra concert since the days of Stokowski and Beecham. Both seemed to know how to make music fun for both the orchestra and the audience.
Howard A. Harner
Kulpsville, Pa.
November 1, 2010 Yo-Yo Ma Re the review of Yo-Yo Ma by Peter Burwasser and Dan Rottenberg— I am wondering if you have heard many of his CDs, and how you feel about them.
Over the years, I have owned and discarded a number of Yo-Yo Ma’s CDs. I have found them to be lifeless and lacking enthusiasm and feeling for the music.
Arthur Yellin
Baltimore, Md.
November 1, 2010 Listening to music: Aesthetics or psychology? Re Dan Coren’s “Right brain, left brain: How do you listen to music?” (April 2010)—
Based upon the title, I expected to find out whether I should be listening to music through my left ear or my right ear. Not the case. Perhaps the answer is "both ears."
I know that each hemisphere of the brain has some different functions and that motor skills controlled by the right hemisphere manifest on the left side of the body and visa versa. Is music more beneficial to motor skills if it is listened to through the left ear or the right ear? Will I be a faster runner if I listen through left or right ear?
Ronald Harris
San Diego, Cal.
November 3, 2010 Editor’s comment: Yes. Fan mail Re Perry Block’s parody of Ginni Thomas vs. Anita Hill—
Hilarious! Wish I’d thought of this myself.
Reed Stevens
Campbell, Calif.
October 27, 2010 Anne Fabbri’s review of “Narcissus in the Studio,” at the Pennsylvania Academy, made me feel almost as if I were there at the exhibit.
Leonard Boasberg
Wayne, Pa.
October 28, 2010 It is a joy to read Anne Fabbri’s review of the portrait show at the Academy. What a terrific show it is, through and through. She gave it a good deal of thought, and I appreciate the way she wrote about my painting. (It was made during a time when I was painting our compost pile with its daily changes— trying to grasp life’s fleeting quality.) She pretty much hit the nail on the head.
Emily Brown
Fairmount/ Philadelphia
November 1, 2010 “My father’s clothes,” by Amy Small-McKinney, is beautiful. Thank you, Amy.
Lorraine Sichel
Princeton, N.J.
November 6, 2010 Amy Small-McKinney’s story was beautiful, and timely. We just went through my recently deceased father-in-law’s closets. His clothes— and he was a wonderful dresser— fit… my 18-year-old son! The boy is now the best dressed high school senior anywhere. We’re all lovin’ it!
Lois Linden
West Mount Airy/ Philadelphia
November 10, 2010 Just wanted to say that Broad Street Review is a wonderful addition to the Philadelphia cultural environment. It always has interesting articles and reviews with stimulating thoughts expressed that you don’t see anywhere else. Thank you, Dan.
Nancy Herman
Merion Station, Pa.
October 27, 2010
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